Mazda and Mazdaspeed Performance Blog

May 24, 2011May 20, 2011

Reach for the Sky

We have been blogging about the Mazda Sky series of engines over the last year but Mazda had yet to announce any specifics about them in terms of fuel economy, displacement, and size.

1.3 Sky-G Engine

This week Mazda took the wraps of the first production Sky engine which will be available in the Mazda 2/Demio in Japan later this year. The engine will be showcased at the Automotive Engineering Exposition near Tokyo Japan from May 18th-20th.

The first engine will be a 1.3 liter displacement gasoline engine which is rated at 70 miles per gallon. This is from a gasoline engine alone, no expensive hybrid setup. The Toyota Prius for example is rated at 51 mpg for city driving and has to pack around the extra hybrid drivetrain. The Sky-G engine features a 14 to 1 compression engine (the highest compression mass production motor ever manufactured) with a direct injection system. The engine features a whole collection of new designs Mazda engineers have been working on over the last few years.

Despite all of the fuel economy goals and gas saving technologies, the engine still produces a decent amount of power for a 1.3 liter making about 80 hp at 5400 rpm.

Specially Designed Sky Piston

Mazda mentions that the engine is an all new design except for the exhaust manifold. I bet we will see a trick exhaust manifold available soon after the Sky engine gets released to the rest of the planet next year which will help it with emissions in various markets.

There is another recent development which I have not seen any automotive news outlets mention. Two engineers Takashi Youso and Masahisa Yamakawa from Mazda’s powertrain division have been recognized by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan for an outstanding technical paper they have produced. The paper was on the development of HCCI or Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition which is when fuel and air are well mixed then compressed to auto ignition. You may think big deal, diesel engines do this already. Gasoline is harder to work with when you factor in how it can pre-ignite easier than diesel and the wide variety of fuel grades/blends around the planet. The paper is about gasoline HCCI, which has super low nitrogen oxide and carbon emissions output, and offers improved fuel economy. I can picture a Mazda 2 getting 80mpg+ which would be incredible from an all gas engine. This is a technical paper so the design is not in production but it gives some good insight on how much Mazda is pushing the envelope of the standard gas engine.

– Derrick

May 17, 2011May 13, 2011

The Game Plan

Many of you reading this blog are probably either a Mazda enthusiast or at least you have some interest in Mazdas. With CorkSport being a one make brand and not adding any other brands like Hyundai or Subaru, our success is basically tied to the success of Mazda. I personally check the news about Mazda daily to see what is going on, which leads me to this blog post.

About 8 months ago there were some rumors going around about Mazda looking to open a new factory in Mexico. Mazda officials dismissed the rumors and the story faded away. At the beginning of this month there was an executive change and Robert Davis was promoted to Senior Vice President of the newly created US Operations division. The new division is an effort by Mazda to capture more North American business.

All of these changes points towards Mazda’s aggressive goals for sales share of the US market. The Mexican based manufacturing plant makes perfect sense. Mexico is part of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) which will give Mazda an advantage with less import fees on the cars brought in to the US along with transportation costs being lower, compared to shipping them from Japan. The new plant also gives Mazda a way out of the Auto Alliance plant they share with Ford in Flat Rock, Michigan which is costing Mazda a lot money.

Mazda is looking to get out of this agreement with Ford and they are serious about the change. There was news this week about Mazda saying that they are looking to discontinue the Mazda 6 built in the USA. This is to be a two part item with the switch to the replacement for the Mazda 6 and to switch to the new manufacturing plant.

The new plant gives Mazda the opportunity to expand their production facilities to meet their new goals set to increase sales to 2 million units yearly. I expect to see the official news about the new plant in the next few months once Mazda gets the personnel changes made to get the US operations division setup and going.

I find it exciting to see the very start of the changes Mazda is making to meet their new goals and I look forward to more information coming up later this year about it.

– Derrick

May 10, 2011May 6, 2011

Getting the Boot!

I have been competing in the local SCCA autocross season in our Mazda 2 which I have previously written about here. There is no set class that the Mazda 2 fits in listed with the SCCA. I looked to see where the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, etc were classed but there was no information available. So this left me to classify the car myself.

I ended up choosing the STS category based on several factors. The STS classification is for small cars with engines under 1.9 liters, like the Honda CRX, Honda Del-Sol, Miata, Porsche 914, etc. The 2 fit into the class wonderfully as all the cars in this class handle very well and would provide a perfect challenge for the 2. After the second event I received an email from the local solo chairman that someone had brought up a question about the Mazda 2 competing in the class and he recommended I take it the national technical person. I sent over an email to the technical service specialist, running down the information about the Mazda 2 and what was going on. My reply back from the SCCA was we needed to be in ST instead of STS. The reason being that the Mazda 2 has back seats. Never mind anything technical about the car with power levels, weight, or any factors that actually make a difference. Heck, I could pull the back seats out if they really want it to be a 2 seat car.

The real icing on the cake was in the email I received back I was told there will be a change next year for the classifications for the Mazda 2. The SCCA acknowledges that there is a problem but they are not going to do anything about it this year. I politely replied back to the SCCA asking if there is anything I can do about it and I was told I should go out there and have fun. I hate to be spoil sport but my goal when I go out and compete is to win.

There is an upcoming autocross event soon which we will find out how well the Mazda 2 stacks up against the ST class. This should be interesting as we will be down around 60 wheel hp against several of the Honda Civics which inhabit in the class. I will post up the results after the next event.

–Derrick

May 9, 2011May 6, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: Mazda 2 Front Strut Tower Bar & Quick-Release Rear Chassis Brace

CorkSport’s Front Strut Tower Bar for the 2011+ Mazda 2 is a direct bolt-on Aluminum brace that stiffens up the front-end of your vehicle. The bar is made from black powder coated aluminum and utilizes stock mounting locations. The brace is optimized using an extruded and CNC bent cross member with laser cut mounting plates for a precise fit.

The bar mounts to the car’s 6 factory strut bolts and does not require you to relocate your brake reservoir.

Features:
The CorkSport Front Strut Tower Bar utilizes the factory strut mounting locations to maximize the effectiveness of the bar. The bar features a black powder coated aluminum design with our CorkSport Logo located on the top side of the bar (can be removed if desired). The one-piece design maximizes the stiffness of the bar and ensures easy installation.

Our one-piece strut tower bar design has been proven effective to reduce slalom times when tested at a local autocross event. Click here for details.

Testing:
The CorkSport Front Stut Tower Bar has been tested on our own vehicle to ensure fit, form, and function. The bar increases stiffness and reduces chassis flex in the front end of the vehicle by tying load points together (strut towers).

Available Now:
As with all our CorkSport Brand Mazda Products, the Front Strut Tower Bar ships with all the hardware you need for installation. Full color step by step installation instructions and telephone technical support are also included with your purchase.

CorkSport’s Quick-Release Rear Strut Tower Bar for the 2011 Mazda 2 is a direct bolt-on one inch diameter bar that stiffens up the rear-end of your 2. The bar requires you to trim a small square out of your cargo area plastic and utilizes stock mounting locations.

The bar installs in about an hour and a half and includes all the necessary hardware to complete the installation. It fits with all existing and future CorkSport brand parts and offers a design that will set your 2 apart from the crowd.

Features:
The CorkSport Quick-Release Rear Strut Tower Bar utilizes CNC machined all aluminum brackets that mount to factory locations and are completely hidden behind the trunk plastic. The bar features a black anodized aluminum design with our CorkSport Logo etched into the bar. The bar is attached to the brackets by aircraft grade quick-release pins that allow the bar to be removed quickly and effortlessly in an event that you need to fold down your rear seats and haul a large object in your 2. The end links are threaded for full stiffness adjustablility. Turn the bar one way to stiffen the rear end, turn the bar the other way to lessen the stiffness.

Testing:
The CorkSport Quick-Release Rear Stut Tower Bar has been tested on our own vehicles to ensure fit, form and function. The bar increases stiffness in the rear end by tying load points together. This results in reduced chassis flex that is a common issue with the hatch-back’s open cargo area design.

Available Now:
As with all our CorkSport Brand Mazda Products, the Quick-Release Rear Strut Tower Bar ships with all the hardware you need for installation. Full color step by step installation instructions and telephone technical support are also included with your purchase.

May 6, 2011March 11, 2021

Mazdas Racing Around the World

Around this time last year I reported on people racing Mazdas around the planet, and wanted revisit the topic and give everyone an update on some of the cool things Mazdas are doing.

This year from April 5th to April 10th 2011 was the Targa Tasmania rally. If you are not familiar with the event, different classes of cars race on public roads which are closed on the island of Tasmania to see who is fastest. The event spans 5 days of competition so it is an endurance race as well as a test of drivers and navigators. Mazda has been a competitor in the Targa Tasmania for many years, gunning for the top positions. This year Mazda entered several Mazda 3 MPS (Mazdaspeed 3 for North America) in the showroom class and RX-8 SPs in the modern class.

One of the Mazda MPS 3s, driven by Reeves and Smyth finished first in showroom classification and 4th overall. This is an impressive feat considering that there were many cars with more power in the modern classification group (the fastest cars). There were 5 Subaru WRX STIs, several Nissan GTRs of various generations, a Lamborghini Gallardo, Corvette Z06s, and more behind the MPS 3 at the end of the event.
The highest placing RX-8 finished 5th overall in the modern class. They experienced some technical problems and other challenges which kept them from being higher in the standings.

Our good friends at Knightsport in Japan competed in the Macao Grand Prix in the road sport challenge. Knightsport’s team worked hard on the RX-8 to get more power and improve the car in other areas to really be competitive.

In last year’s event their driver Tanigawa placed 2nd in the race. Unfortunately this year an errant Nissan GTR made contact with the Knighsports RX-8 causing enough damage to take the car out of the race. Yes there is an Rx8 in the middle of the GTR and EVO sandwich in the picture below.

Yau (the GTR driver) said Tanigawa should apologize for the incident and the contact between the two cars. Yau was fined by the racing sanctioning body despite his protests about the fault of the collision. The Nissan driver retired 5 cars with his skillful driving.

Want to see the RX-8 in action? Check out the in car footage shot from the Knightsport RX-8 during qualifying here.

The last team I wanted to show is the Van Herck Mazda 3. Van Herck had been racing a Mazda RX-7 for years and decided to build a new car to compete with in the Belgium Touring Car Championship. They started with a Mazda 3, converted it to rear wheel drive, and powered it with a 450whp 20B and a sequential 6 speed gearbox.

In the first event the Mazda 3 was in position to win when the car stopped on the track for no apparent reason. Back in the pits the problem was chased down to a fuel cooling problem which the team is working to resolve for the next round of racing. After the event all of the other competitors stopped by the pits of Van Herck to check out the car. Most were really surprised at the speed of the Mazda 3.

You can see video of the Mazda 3 during some practice sessions here.

I will be re-visiting the progress of the Van Herck Mazda 3 when the season finishes along with some more Mazda racing action again later this year.

– Derrick

CorkSport Mazda Performance Blog

Posts

Reach for the Sky

The Game Plan

Getting the Boot!

PRESS RELEASE: Mazda 2 Front Strut Tower Bar & Quick-Release Rear Chassis Brace

Mazdas Racing Around the World